Chef Dominique Crenn to Kick Off POP's New Series '[City] Meets Nashville'

If you're going to kick something off with a bang, bringing in San Francisco chef Dominique Crenn seems like the way to do it.

The only woman in America to receive two Michelin stars — for her Atelier Crenn restaurant — will bring her artful style of French cuisine to POP on Saturday, July 26, for a one-night-only dinner called San Francisco Meets Nashville. The event is billed as the first of a whole cultural series, "[City] Meets Nashville," pairing chefs and other artists, planned for the new POP pop-up venue at 604 Gallatin Ave. in East Nashville.

POP and Otaku South partner Sarah Gavigan says she's pretty ecstatic about getting Crenn here.

"Her dedication to her craft, pushing the boundaries of her work as a woman in the field, and her representation of the culinary scene in San Francisco highlight the reasons she was chosen to be the first chef to represent her [city] in the POP Nashville driven event series," Gavigan said in a release.

Crenn will be paired with local visual artist Sadie Monroe, who will create a special look for the dining room for the evening. It seems a fitting match, as a glimpse through Crenn's food reveals carefully composed, artistic dishes.

Tickets for the event are $200 with an optional pairing for $50. Gavigan tells Bites that the event will give a group of culinary students an opportunity to stage (the chef equivalent of interning) with Crenn for the event, something she said Crenn is excited about.

Here's how Bloomberg's Ryan Sutton described Atelier Crenn in a glowing review:

Take Crenn’s “Walk in the Forest” course. Roasted trumpet, oyster, chanterelle and maitake mushrooms are served standing up, funghi foot soldiers on china. The robust, salty flavors work by themselves, but Crenn tosses in a bit of hazelnut praline here, some burnt pine meringue there, and the result is a wild Willy Wonka ode to the woods. Or consider the squab. It’s covered in raspberry leather. The gel helps tame the more liverish parts of the bird, while other bites betray a lingering beefiness worthy of dry-aged steak. It’s magnificent.

Dishes like this explain the French-born Crenn’s two Michelin stars. She’s also among the very few women in America overseeing a tasting-menu-only restaurant, a remarkable statistic in an era where long, set-menu dinners are increasingly at the highest levels of gastronomy.

July's dinner should be an interesting event.